Dick Metz founded the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, and he grew up a few steps from where it now stands. "My mom was a schoolteacher here. My dad owned a bar and a restaurant where the grass is right in front of a lifeguard tower," he told Stu News Laguna at the museum's September opening. "So I literally grew up right across the street from here."
That new home sits about 200 yards from Main Beach, and it opened six days before the city dedicated the Forest Avenue Promenade. Within a few blocks, downtown Laguna now has a free surf museum and a car-free plaza. The Coast Film & Music Festival, running Oct. 16 through 25, uses both as venues. For people who live here, festival week has a catch. The museum that usually costs nothing to enter will be open only to festival ticket holders from Oct. 17 to 25, so the best local use of the new downtown falls on the free plaza night and the days on either side of the festival.
Two Openings, One Week Apart
SHACC spent more than two decades in the hills of San Clemente before moving downtown. Its grand opening was Sept. 19, according to Stu News Laguna. The Orange County Register described a public opening on Sept. 18 followed by open-house festivities on Sept. 19. The collection includes more than 800 surfboards, and five of them are connected to Duke Kahanamoku. Kahanamoku made or rode eight known boards in his lifetime, so this one building holds most of the surviving set. The building is a former large commercial space. The renovation kept the high ceiling and added whitewashed walls and new flooring.
According to SHACC's visitor page, admission is free, the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the parking lot and main entrance are at 232 Ocean Ave.
Six days after SHACC opened, more than 500 people filled Forest Avenue for the promenade's official dedication on Sept. 25. The Laguna Beach Independent reported that the plaza had already been finished for more than a month. Mayor Mark Orgill traced it back 27 years to the community's Vision 2030 plan, and he said the Coastal Commission approved it unanimously. The Register's coverage of the completed plaza lists a fountain and artwork inspired by a kelp forest, specialty rustic brick, custom furniture, umbrellas with heaters, new lighting and audio, a nautilus bench and bike racks. The city's project plans also set aside areas for temporary performances.
Local news coverage of the plaza mentions Bushard's Pharmacy, Moulin and Faherty along the block, with Candy Baron near the far end. That evening offered a band on the plaza, the museum and nearby dinner options, all within a short walk.
The Festival Is Drawn on the New Map
This is the eighth Coast Film & Music Festival, with more than 80 documentary features and shorts. The Independent's lineup report lists the venues as Rivian South Coast Theater, "the newly unveiled" SHACC, Festival of Arts, Forum Theater, Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center, The Promenade on Forest Avenue and Hobie Surf Shop. Culture OC's fall festival guide adds smaller stops, including Jedidiah Coffee, Main Beach, Laguna Surf Lodge, Sea Love and the Susi Q Senior Center. It also notes that the festival started as a small November showcase and has grown to include concerts in the 2,600-seat Irvine Bowl.
Two of those venues did not exist as festival sites a year ago. The new museum hosts the opening-night after-party, and the new plaza gets a full night of free outdoor screenings.
The Week the Museum Closes to Walk-Ins
SHACC's admission page puts it plainly: "From October 17-25, SHACC is only open to Coast Film Festival ticket holders." Today is Monday, Oct. 12, and the museum is closed Mondays. That leaves Tuesday, Oct. 13 through Friday, Oct. 16 as the last ordinary walk-in days before the festival. On Friday night the building switches over to the opening-night after-party, and SHACC notes that hours may change around events.
The museum's own calendar keeps going through festival week and after it. SHACC's events page lists the Follow the Light Awards with Chris Burkard on Oct. 17, "Mariachi Matters" on Oct. 18, a Land and Sea Mixer on Oct. 22, a public surfboard sale on Oct. 25 with public entry from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a Jeff Divine book launch on Oct. 29. The surfboard sale is the one listed public window inside the restricted dates. The book launch is the first event on the calendar after the museum reopens to everyone.
Festival Week, in Order
For anyone planning around downtown through the end of October, these are the dated items, with prices from Culture OC's guide unless another source is named:
- Friday, Oct. 16. Opening night features SURFILMUSIC, which follows Jack Johnson from surfer and filmmaker to musician, along with the shorts Lester and Kelly + Tahiti. The film screens at Rivian South Coast Theater for $35, and the after-party at SHACC is $15.
- Tuesday, Oct. 20. Hobie Night runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hobie Surf Shop, 294 Forest Ave., with Par Avion and screenings of The Granny Grommets and Inflation Point. Tickets are $40.
- Thursday, Oct. 22. The Coast Summit runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Rivian South Coast Theater, 162 S. Coast Hwy., for $250. The Land & Sea Mixer, with a Surfrider and Protect Our Winters panel, costs $15. In the evening, Films on Forest is free and first come, first served.
- Friday through Sunday, Oct. 23 to 25. Concerts at the Irvine Bowl feature Rainbow Body, Ben Harper and Amos Lee on consecutive nights. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and shows start at 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $80.
- Sunday, Oct. 25. SHACC's public surfboard sale runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Thursday, Oct. 29. The Jeff Divine book launch takes place at SHACC after the festival ends.
Some free events are spread across the 10 days. Coffee Talks with filmmakers, surfers, scientists and creatives cost nothing. A beach cleanup, surf and yoga sessions, a trail run and a scent-blending workshop are also free but need reservations through coastfilmfestival.com.
Oct. 22 Is the Night the Plaza Was Built For
The city's Promenade on Forest stage series ran Fridays through Sundays and ended Aug. 30, and the city has not posted a fall continuation. That makes Films on Forest the plaza's main scheduled public evening between the September dedication and the holidays. The heated umbrellas and performance areas are now in place for a free outdoor screening on a late-October night, open to anyone who arrives early enough to get a seat.
Orgill told the Independent the timing was intentional:
"We thought that it was an appropriate time to do the ribbon cutting and announce the grand opening of the promenade before we get into the fall and winter months where we start to have hospitality night and some of the other events."
What Follows on the Same Blocks
The next date the city has put on the plaza is Hospitality Night, Friday, Dec. 4, from about 5 to 9 p.m. The city calls the schedule tentative. Downtown streets close starting at 3 p.m., free trolley and on-demand rides run from 4 to 11 p.m., and the tree lighting is at 6:10 p.m. On the Forest Avenue main stage, Anneliese School performs at 6:30 p.m., followed by Susannah B & the Lowkeys with Earl Thomas from 7 to 9 p.m.
Two longer runs overlap with that stretch. The Festival of Arts exhibition Substance and Sustenance: Food as Art opens today and runs through Jan. 25, 2027, inside Active Culture at 1006 S. Coast Highway. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Stu News Laguna lists a public reception on Thursday, Nov. 5. Sawdust Art Festival's Winter Fantasy runs Nov. 20 through Dec. 20 over five Friday-to-Sunday weekends, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Getting downtown without a car is still possible after summer. The city's off-season trolley schedule, in effect from Sept. 8, 2026 to June 25, 2027, runs the coastal route along Coast Highway between North Laguna, downtown, South Laguna and Dana Point every 20 to 30 minutes. The free weekend Canyon Route runs every 30 minutes from the paid parking at Lot 16.
If you own a home within walking distance of Forest Avenue and Broadway and wonder how downtown's new anchors show up in your home's value, Summer Perry Group would be glad to put together a complimentary valuation that looks closely at your block.
